Get Your Message to Your Potential Buyers

I had a dream, (or was it a nightmare?), that I spent my
next 30 years advertising budget on a 30 second Super Bowl commercial. It was
so obvious; our company name seen by millions and millions of people and us
associated with the biggest annual sporting event. I couldn’t wait to get to
the office on Monday to hear the phones ringing off the hook. Needless to say,
nothing really happened at the office on Monday except that the employees were
impressed they saw our name for 30 seconds right between the Clydesdales and
Dorito chips. Fortunately, right then I woke up. As I awakened, I remembered
that I had spent the previous day working on my advertising budget for this
year. The irony of the Super Bowl ad hit me. In my dream I hadn’t bothered to
determine who really is my audience.

The point is that with the start of a new year, it is time
to take a complete look at your entire advertising strategy. The idea of
advertising is to get your message to your potential buyers. The same things
that worked a few years ago, or maybe even last year, may not work right now.
The reason is that people are not receiving messages the same ways that they
did years, or even months ago. The new social media items like Facebook and
Twitter are so new, no one really yet knows their impact. So how do you, as a
contractor, sort through all of the possibilities.

The first step is to analyze who it is that you want to
reach. This requires an internal analysis of your customers and their
demographics. It’s important to take the time to put down in writing the
important factors that identify your customers. This includes age, general
income level, male or female, geographic location, and anything else you know
that helps identify and segment those that make up your existing and potential
customer base. The more you can pinpoint the type of individuals you want to
reach, the better value you will be able to obtain from your advertising dollars.
This requires accepting the fact that the entire population out there is not
your potential market. The acceptance of this fact was a step I obviously had
not taken in my dream when placing my Super Bowl ad. I was paying to reach
millions and millions of people who were not potential customers. You can be
very successful serving a relatively small portion of the entire population.

Another important reason to analyze your current customers
is to determine how you might best stay in touch with them. Most experts in our
industry say you will get more return on money spent by keeping in touch with
your own customer base. Direct mail is probably the best way to target your own
customers. Unfortunately, because it
can be targeted, many industries use direct mail and your message can easily be
lost in the clutter. Many companies must find direct mail to be a successful
approach because so many use it extensively. Direct mail is one good way to
encourage referrals by including in your direct mail piece an incentive for
someone to make a referral. Speaking of referrals, since a high percentage of
our leads come from our own customers and referrals from those customers, I am
questioned by our employees as to whether or not we really need to advertise at
all. My response is that, if I am looking to purchase something, and a friend
refers me to a company, if I am familiar with the company name, have heard it
advertised, or seen their trucks, I am a lot more likely to follow up and
contact that company. If I have never heard of the company referred, I am less
likely to call that company. For that reason, I feel it is important that we
keep our name out there in front of our potential customers.

Thus, as you plan your advertising program, your first step
is to analyze your current customer base. This will give you the information as
to where to best spend your advertising dollars to reach potential new
customers. It will also help you determine the best ways to get reach your
existing customers. With that background information regarding the type of
individual around whom you want to target your advertising dollars, it is now
time to determine how to best go about reaching that audience. In our next
column, we will look at the pros and cons of the many advertising options
available.

Welsch is the owner
of Welsch Heating & Cooling, St. Louis, and can be reached at
welsch1@primary.net.